Premier Foods outlines cost saving plan to bounce back from inflation woes

Mr Kipling cake-maker Premier Foods on Tuesday tried to sweeten investors by unveiling a cost-cutting plan including redundancies, after “disappointing” results and inflation woes.

The Ambrosia custard-to-Bisto gravy firm said it plans to make savings of around £20 million over the next two years.

It has agreed 50 job cuts from head office, bringing total headcount to around 4000 employees, and it will consolidate its warehousing operations.

The moves came after underlying annual sales fell 1.4% to £790.4 million.

Premier Foods — which has teamed up with Great British Bake Off star Paul Hollywood to launch a range of home-baking goods — also came under fire for price rises to retail customers.

It blamed “material input cost inflation in the past year”.

Boss Gavin Darby said the latest numbers were not surprising given the “period of significant change for the food industry”.

He added that he was confident of growth, helped by an expanded licence from Mondelez International to sell Cadbury cakes.

Shares fell 1p to 42.04p.